Smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other internet enabled electronic equipment are ubiquitous in today's society. These devices may provide voice calling, e-mail access, internet access, and other services. Due to their mobility, many of these devices utilize cellular voice and data connections to provide these services. As a result, the capacity requirements for cellular networks have grown exponentially in recent years.
To meet demand, cellular networks are generally designed for the worst-case scenario. In the case of networks, this is based largely on the maximum predicted traffic flow (i.e., data usage) at any given time (e.g., TB/sec). In other words, networks must be designed to meet maximum usage—not average usage—to prevent failures such as dropped calls or download interruptions. As a result, cellular networks must often be oversized and thus, operate at less than full capacity much of the time. If maximum data usage occurs between 1 PM and 5 PM, for example, the network may operate at significantly less than 100% capacity for the majority of the day.